The Awakened

The Forgotten Realms suffers under the machinations of powerful beings trying to defend thier holdings from the horrors of the Far Realm.

Cyclops and Bog Hags

28

JAN/12

You confront the Cyclops whom you see is carrying off two young women. Several of you attack the Monster before he can even begin to react; Marvelous deals a particularly devastating blow. Bloodied before it can even mount a counter attack, the creature drops the females and flees. Just before the Cyclops could lose its self in the tree line Churchill fells it with a well placed magic missile.
Marvelous has little trouble picking up the trail used by the monster and within an hour your group is outside the lair of the Cyclops. The lair appears to be a cave leading into a rocky hillside. A poorly cured hide is draped across the entrance. Sneaking inside the cave, Marvelous scouts out the entrance. Upon his return your group strategizes what to do next.
After some discussion Balthazor marches in, leading the assault. The Cyclops’ prove to be no challenge to your martial prowess and are wiped out. The survivors are freed from the Monsters make shift cage and escorted back to the town of Baniff.
All though the townsfolk are deep in morning for those they lost, they are still very appreciative of your efforts and do what they can to provide you with food, lodging, and comfort.
The next day you venture on toward the Cold Marshes. You spend the night near the swamps edge and set off again early the next day. By late afternoon, after a miserable day of hiking through cold boggy water, biting insects, and noxious fumes, you make your way to the Barrows. You quickly determine that the largest most central barrow is your goal and spend an hour searching for an entrance on the grass covered mound.
You cease searching when you are confronted by a horrific sight. Rising up out of the dark murky water is a wrinkled muck covered hag. She has long stringy black hair. Her lips and gums are black and her tongue looks like a slimy worm or eel twisting around behind her few remaining teeth. She begins a conversation with your group by telling you how very lonely she is and asks for one of you to ease that loneliness. “Give ush a kish”.
Churchill grants her request and is quickly overwhelmed with nausea as he feels what he thinks is her tongue squirming around in his belly. The Hag introduces herself as Gizzella. She asks you what brings you to this desolate dreary place. Once you tell her that you propose to enter the Barrow she informs you that you will need to satisfy one of two requirements. You must either give her the Heart of an innocent, or bring her the heads of the Twin Terrors of the Swamp. “For only the very bad or the very good may enter the Barrow of Jezzoranth.”
Choosing to kill the pair of Black Dragons that hunt these swamps you make a plan. Balthazor stands on the center mound with his sword lit bright and held high above his head as a beacon to draw in the Dragons. The first night you fail to draw anything to you. Gizzella asks Churchill to join her in her dwelling. When he agrees you see she draws him into the murky waters of her home.
The day passes gray and wet. Then, late into the night, as Balthazor stands tall with his sword blazing into the darkened sky, a piercing shriek from high above you announces the arrival of your prey.